ATS Medical, Inc., a leader in mechanical heart valve technology and related cardiac surgical accessories, announced that it has agreed to terms with Swedish research firm ErySave AB for exclusive development, licensing and marketing of a new patented health care technology for cardiac surgery procedures. The terms of the transaction involve a cash payment of up to $1.3 million to ErySave for achievement of development milestones.
The exclusive agreement grants ATS Medical worldwide rights for ErySave's PARSUS filtration technology for cardiac surgery procedures. The platform, PARSUS, Particle Separation by Ultrasound, enables highly qualitative filtering, by ultrasound waves, of potentially dangerous particles suspended in blood. This technique could potentially be used in all patients requiring a cardiac surgery procedure such as heart valve replacement or repair and coronary artery by pass.
Open heart surgery results in the release of tiny particles of fat (lip micro emboli) into the patient's blood. In the brain, these particles can block fine capillaries, obstructing blood flow to vital areas resulting in oxygen deficit and potential neurological injury and dysfunction. The PARSUS technology effectively filters out these hazardous lipid microemboli by harmlessly separating them from the blood by ultrasound waves before the blood is transfused back into the patient. Elimination of these lipid microemboli particles makes autotransfusion more viable. Current methods of filtering the patient's blood, by centrifuge or filter, do not effectively remove these particles.
Ultrasound technology has been widely used in health care for many years. The PARSUS technology from ErySave uses the same frequency as diagnostic ultrasound and is based on the fact that blood components have different physical properties than the lipids. Through ultrasound's ability to detect variations in acoustic impedance it is able to separate the lipid microemboli from the blood.
According to Michael D. Dale, president and CEO of ATS Medical, "The partnership with ErySave reflects our company's continuing dedication to advancing the standard of performance and improving patient outcomes in cardiac surgery. ATS Medical is Focused Right on Cardiac Surgery."
ErySave was founded in early 2000 by a team from Sweden's Lund Institute of Technology and Lund University Hospital specifically to explore the PARSUS technology. Its goal has been to increase efficacy, user-friendliness and quality performance in cardiac surgery by removal of microemboli from the blood.